


Dealing with Devils

by Levis_turtles



Series: Curses [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: BillDip, Deals with Demons, F/F, Human Bill Cipher, M/M, Older Dipper Pines, Older Mabel Pines, Slow Build, cipherpines, maybe some kissing, pretty much all happy times and sunshine, rating is pretty much only for swears, stan isn't there, the kids own the shack, there won't be any sexy stuff going on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-04-12 15:11:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4484159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Levis_turtles/pseuds/Levis_turtles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“That’s all you want?” She asked, looking at the demon with uncertainty in her eyes. “That’s all I have to pay for you to keep Dipper safe?”</p><p>The demon nodded, somehow managing the action despite not having a head. "This is all I want from you. Do we have a deal?”</p><p>"Deal."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The sun beat down from the cloudless sky above Gravity Falls, the weight of the heat almost unbearable. The inside of the Mystery Shack being a temperature bordering on hazardous, the twins had elected to close up for the day in favour of enjoying the sun outdoors.

Mabel and Dipper pines, now eighteen and fresh out of high school, had gathered some supplies and disappeared into the woods, heading to a cove they had discovered as children, many summers ago. The trees cast shadows around the circular clearing, dazzling sun shining down on the pond in the centre. Small flowers were littered on the grass, all leaning their colourful faces towards the blue waters.

Mabel floated on the cool water, too hot to try and swim, soaking in the sun. Her wet hair was splayed out around her head like a halo, and a group of faerie children played with the strands, weaving flowers into the brown curls. Her brother was close by, under the shade of an oak tree, sketching a picture of the faeries into journal number five.

As children, they had spent every summer in gravity falls with their Grunkle Stan. That was, until they were fifteen, and their parents got into a terrible car accident, killing them both. Their great uncle had taken full custody of them after that, and it was with pride – and the mischievous glint of a conman – in his eye that he handed the keys to the Mystery Shack over to them on their eighteenth birthday. Shortly afterwards he had announced that he would be moving to a quieter town, to live the rest of his life in peace. The twins didn't buy it, but they knew better to ask what their Grunkle would really be doing with his pension.

Mabel had been overjoyed, of course, immediately calling dibs on their grunkle’s old room. She had moved in before the old man had managed to move out. Dipper had been a bit more on the apprehensive side, choosing to worry about finances and living arrangements and maintenance – not to mention the last time Stan had left Mabel in charge, and between the two of them they’d managed to knock down half the building and rebuild it in under three days. His anxiety had soon subsided, however, once Mabel had tempted him with all the wonderful things he’d be able to find in the forest now that he didn’t have to coax money out of the tight old man’s wallet to buy equipment.

And she’d been right.

Since they’d owned the place – less then a year – he’d managed to discover two whole journals worth of creatures, as well as update and add to the information on the creatures already in the original three books.

Dipper stared down at his drawing. His art skills had improved greatly over the years, with the help of his sister, and his sketches now rivalled those of the original author of the books – their Grunkle Ford. Turning over to a new page, Dipper wrote the names of all the creatures that lived in the cove. There were the water nymphs, information located on page 246 of journal 4, the tree faeries, information on page 57 of journal 5, the burrowing gnoblins, information on page 23 of journal 5-

“Hey-hey, bro-bro!” Mabel greeted, crossing the grass separating the brisk waters from the cool woodland and sinking to sit next to her brother. Rummaging around in her huge tartan bag, Mabel fished out a peanut butter sandwich. Offering Dipper the second half, she bit into the first, moaning as she revelled in the feeling of eating sticky foods. She’d had her braces off for a few weeks now, but she still couldn’t get over how good it felt to eat a gooey peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Frowning at his sister’s euphoric face, Dipper shook his head. “You can have it,” he said, eyeing the sandwich with disgust.

Mabel grinned at him, brown and red staining her teeth, and bit into the second half. “More for me!” She moaned again, and Dipper shuddered. Why couldn’t she just eat meat, like a normal person?

Dipper went back to his journal while he waited for her to finish eating, jotting down a few observations he’d made about the cove. It seemed that every time he went somewhere, even places he’d been going for years, there was always something new to discover. For instance, last time he’d been to the cove, he hadn’t noticed that the gnoblins – half gnome, half goblin – had been hoarding pinecones under flat rocks to the east of the pond.

Dipper wrote that down.

Finishing his sentence with a sharp jab of his pen, Dipper glanced at his sister, who was grinning at him, mischief shining in her eyes. Shoving his shoulder playfully, she giggled at how much he loved this place – this whole new world that gravity falls had opened up for them. “You _nerd_ ,” she said, poking Dipper’s cheek with a, thankfully not sticky, finger.

Dipper poked her back.

Mabel’s smile widened, and her eyes took on a dangerous light. Before Dipper could raise his hands as a sign of peace and surrender, Mabel was on him, her fingers digging into his sides as she tickled him savagely.

Screaming – not at all like a little girl - Dipper rolled to the side in an attempt to get away from his attacker, only to crash into something sharp. Mabel froze above him. “Ow,” Dipper groaned, raising his arm to inspect the damage.

“Ow?” A squeaky voice demanded. “Ow?! I’ll show you ow!” Both Mabel and Dipper glanced to the side, where a small and angry gnome sat, groping the tip of his pointed hat, looking for damage. The gnome stood, planting its hands on its hips, and snarled at the teenagers. Flinching at the sight of the sharp teeth, Mabel and Dipper backed away from the creature, giving it some space.

“We are so sorry,” Mabel immediately apologised, looking over the creature in search of any injuries.

“We didn’t mean to hurt you,” Dipper added on to the end. The gnome looked up at him, his face reddening when he met the boy’s dark brown eyes.

Empty black orbs widening, the gnome blinked at Dipper. “Princess,” he mumbled.

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing; ‘Not again.’

“Gnomes! Come quick! I have found a Princess!” The gnome called, not taking his eyes off of Dipper. The call was answered by the light sound of hundreds of tiny, running feet, and soon enough, Mabel and Dipper were surrounded by gnomes.

Small gasps and awe-stricken gazes were all either twin could see, and Dipper reached out to grab his sister’s hand. “On the count of three, we run,” He instructed. Neither twin wanted to relive the first time they’d been exposed to the strange creatures of gravity falls, though the day had marked the start of an epic adventure.

“One,” Dipper said.

“Two,” Mabel continued.

“Three!” Both twins shouted together, and they leapt over the heads of the small army of gnomes. Hands locked together, they ran.

Cries of anger sounded behind them, as well as one cry of rage instructing the gnomes to, “Charge!”

Still holding tight to one another’s hands, Mabel and Dipper crashed through the woods, dodging trees and leaping over roots, taking care not to catch their feet in the moss covering the woodland floor. With a small squeak, Mabel glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a gnome leap at Dipper, sinking its teeth into her brother’s leg.

Dipper let out a cry of pain, but kept running, letting go of his sister so she could get ahead of him. “Go!” He yelled to her. “Get back to the shack. It’s you they want!”

Mabel froze a few metres ahead of her brother, and watched as the gnomes circled him, looking up at him with expressions ranging from adoration to fear to ravenous loathing. “Uh, Dip. I don’t think they want m-”

She was cut off when Jeff, who she remembered was like a leader of sorts, glared at her. “We don't want you! We want her,” looking back to Dipper, the bearded gnome clambered on to one of his brother’s backs. Dropping to one knee, Jeff said, “Oh, beautiful princess. Would you do us the honour of becoming our bide?”

Dipper choked on his spit, and Mabel bit her knuckle to smother a laugh. “Uh…” Dipper began, staring down at the gnomes at his feet with an expression too good to waste. “I’m flattered but-”

“Hey, buttface!” Mabel yelled, a pebble clunking against the alpha-gnomes hat. Capturing the attention of Jeff, Mabel pointed a finger at Dipper, “That’s a boy!”

Jeff snarled at the girl, anger being replaced by realisation as he turned to look up to Dipper with crestfallen eyes. “Princess, is this true?”

Dipper nodded, not sure what he should be feeling right now. “Sorry man,” he shrugged.

The gnome smiled cheerfully. “Oh, it’s okay. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time.” Jeff dismounted the gnome he’d been standing on and turned to Mabel. “Besides, it's not like there's not a perfectly good princess right over there. She's not as pretty as you but she'll do.” Like mob mentality, all of the gnomes started running at Mabel at once, their battle cries resounding through the forest.

Mabel let out a squeak, and Dipper yelled for her to run. Without thinking, Mabel turned from the gnomes and did just that, glad to see that the mystery shack was in sight. Glancing behind her and seeing that she had a good five metres head start on the gnomes, she sped up, thundering towards the wooden door of her home.

The girl reached the shack, slamming the door behind her, and watched through a window as the gnomes bounced off an invisible wall. Any creature that wished ill intent on either the twins or the shack would be denied entry through the protective barrier. Pounding on the invisible wall, Jeff yelled, “You can’t stay in there forever, Princess!”

“Watch me!” Mabel yelled back, distracting the gnomes long enough for her brother run up to the swarm of angry little me, red leaf blower in hand.

Mabel winced at the shrill sounds of their screams, terrified by the garden tool, but soon she found herself giggling as the gnomes fought one another to get away, each of them disappearing into the forest one by one. Dipper hadn’t even turned the blower on. Jeff was the last to disappear into the protection of the trees, shaking his fist at the two. “We will have you, Mabel! We will make you our queen!”

Dipper revved the leaf blower, and Jeff squealed, scarpering after his fallen brethren.

Discarding the leaf blower on the lawn and heading into the house, Dipper threw himself into a chair, chuckling. Glancing up at his sister, he smiled. “At least we know the warding spell we put up works.”

Mabel grinned, punching her brother’s arm. “Nice work, ya big nerdy wizard.” Dipper scowled at her, though it looked more like a pout, and she shook her head at him. She swung open the fridge door, reaching past Dipper’s trays of experiments to where the food was stored. “Want a drink?” She asked.

“As long as it’s not Mabel-Juice, sure.”

Mabel grinned, pulling a can of Pitt Cola out of the fridge and throwing it to her brother. Dipper raised a hand to catch it but missed, sucking a breath through his teeth when the metal collided with his shoulder. He shot an incredulous look at his sister, and she giggled, “Sorry.”

Dipper shook his head at his sister, lifting the can and popping the top, glad that it hadn’t gotten so shaken up that foam started oozing from the top. Sighing as the liquid bubbled its way down his throat, Dipper reached his hand inside his jacket- “Oh no.”

Mabel looked away from her book and peered at him over the rim of her glass, “Hm?”

“I left the journal back at the cove,” He said. “I have to go back.”

Mabel pulled the glass of purple juice away from her lips. “Okay, that’s fine. We’ve still got a few hours of daylight left.” Mabel folded the corner of the page she was on, setting the book down on the table.

Dipper looked up at her, “You’re not coming.” At her hurt look, Dipper sighed and softly added, “If those gnomes are still out there you don’t stand a chance.”

Understanding dawned on Mable’s face, quickly replaced with anxiety for her brother. “Will you be okay? It’s a really long walk, and you know what the forest’s like after dark.” She bit her lip, “Can’t you just go tomorrow?”

Dipper shook his head, “If it rains tonight, all that work will be ruined.” Mabel nodded, worrying her chapped lower lip, and Dipper pulled her in for a quick hug. “I’ll be back before you know it,” he said, channelling some of his sister’s cheerfulness.

She gave him a small smile, which he returned before slipping out the door.

Mabel sighed when the door closed, leaning her back against the counter and scrubbing at her face with her fingers. Dipper knew these woods like the back of his hand, she knew that, but it still didn’t keep her from worrying about him every time he ventured into them.

Turning her head to the left, she stared at Dipper’s back as he strode in past the tree line. Smiling slightly at the happy spring in her brother’s step the forest always brought to him, Mabel turned to the cupboard, deciding to surprise Dipper with his favourite food when he got home.

 

~~ **Δ~~**

 

Dipper breathed a sigh of relief as he neared the tree where he’d been sitting and saw that the journal was still there, open to the page he’d left it on. Doing a quick scan of the area to see if they’d left anything else behind, Dipper noticed Mabel’s bag a few feet away; it’s contents strewn over the floor.

Some pesky creature must have taken a shine to it.

Quickly collecting up the spilled items and tossing them haphazardly into the bag, Dipper thanked all of the gods that whatever had done this hadn’t stumbled upon his journal. As he bent over to pick up a sandwich wrapped in cellophane, Dipper heard a grunt behind him, and he froze.

Slowly turning his head towards the pond, Dipper’s breath hitched as he saw the large creature hunched over at the water’s edge, drinking out of its cupped hands. The beast’s spine glowed in the twilight.

At an achingly slow pace, Dipper stood back up, Mabel’s bag in hand, and inched towards the protective sanctuary the trees would provide. Dipper took a step back, then another.  He was inches away from the treeline. Another step back, and- _snap!_

The creature whirled on him, and Dipper looked down at the broken twig beneath his foot. “Shit.”

And then he ran.

A mighty roar echoed behind him, slicing through the forest, silencing every creature. Dipper wove through the trees, clutching Mabel’s bag to his chest with his arm buried deep within it. He knew he’d put her mirror in there somewhere, but he didn’t know where – why did this infernal bag have to have so many pockets?

Fingers closing around something long and sharp, Dipper pulled it out of the bag and threw it carelessly over his shoulder. He heard a scream as the knitting needle pierced one of the beast’s eyes.

Dipper jumped over a shrub, which was blocking his path, and winced as he felt the spindly branches ghost over his calf. He felt something warm trickle down his leg, and growled in frustration as he realised the gauze that he had wrapped around his bite wound had come loose.

The smell of fresh blood seemed to encourage the gremloblin to run faster, and Dipper could feel the hot and putrid breath of the beast on his back. The rancid smell of the fungi on the beast’s back slipped into Dipper’s nostrils like tendrils of smoke, forcing tears to well up in the boy’s eyes.

The beast closed the gap even further, Dipper rapidly losing speed and focus as his racing heart pumped blood out of his gaping wound. Dipper was surprised that he couldn’t feel the pain, though he supposed the adrenaline in his body had something to do with that.

He continued to rummage through Mabel’s bag, tossing everything his fingers managed to wrap around haphazardly over his shoulder, hoping to slow the creature down. A hairbrush, another knitting needle, a ball of yarn, all struck the gremloblin in the face, angering the creature rather than deterring it.

Digging his heels into the mossy forest floor, Dipper took a sharp left at the third dead tree, and breathed a sigh of relief as the Mystery Shack came into view. His sudden change of course had added a few feet of space between him and the gremloblin, and he found himself picking up speed as he crashed through the underbrush, hope egging him on.

And then the pain exploded in his back.

Dipper screamed as the gremloblin’s claws sliced through his back, cutting through his t-shirt and leaving three parallel stripes diagonally across his spine. It took only seconds for Dipper’s shirt to become heavy with his blood, and for the boy’s steps to slow. Dipper was barely breathing, his face pale and eyes hooded when he took one final step across the barrier, locking the gremloblin out.

The creature gave a mighty roar as it pounded its fists against the invisible wall, flickers of blue lightning sparking up its arms with every hit. As it’s punches became more ferocious, the magic warding’s repercussions grew stronger, and it was with one very strong hit, so strong that Dipper heard the ward shudder, that a bright flash of blue rode it’s way up the creatures arm. The creature whimpered as the electric magic burned its arm, singeing every hair it found there into ash. With a one-eyed glare at Dipper, the creature turned its back on the boy and retreated into the forest.

As the adrenaline in his system began to die down, Dipper’s leg and back began to burn, his vision turning fuzzy and blackened at the edges and glowing a familiar yellow in the centre. He groaned, laying his head back in the grass, and the high-pitched buzzing in his ears died down long enough for the male twin to hear his sister call his name.

 

~~ **Δ~~**

Mabel’s eyes blinked open, and she realised with a start that she had fallen asleep. The pink bubbles she’d poured into her bath had diminished, leaving her cold in the tub of now icy water. She pouted down at herself, disappointed that she hadn’t got the most out of her bath bomb. With a yawn, she reached out to the side, fingers stretching out, reaching for a towel. When her fingers wrapped around the soft fabric, she frowned. Her arms weren’t _that_ long-

“It’s about time you woke up.”

Mabel screamed, clutching the towel to her bare chest. “Bill?”

The demon seemed to look down at himself, just to check, before meeting Mabel’s startled eyes once again, “I sure hope so. It’d be pretty awkward if I wasn’t now wouldn’t it?”

“How long have you been in here?” Mabel yelped, bringing her legs up to her chest to hide as much of herself from the demon as she could.

Bill inspected his nails, if he even had any. “Not long. I was just about to pop into your dreams when you woke up.”

Mabel eyed the demon, not even trying to hide her distrust of him. “Why were you gonna go into my head?”

“To tell you to get dressed. Pine Tree’s going to be arriving soon, and you’re gonna wanna meet him at the door.” Bill answered, seemingly bored with the conversation.

Mabel seemed to brighten at the mention of her twin, even managing to smile slightly. “Okay! But you have to turn around first.”

Bill rolled his eyes. “You humans and your nudity,” but at Mabel’s sharp glare, complied, turning his back on the girl. He didn’t see the point of it – he could see everything in this town, and more than once he’d peered in to the shack to check on his favourite set of twins and caught them in the middle of dressing or bathing or… other things. “Are you done yet?”

“Yepperoni!” Mabel beamed at the demon, and he turned back around. “So, why do I have to meet Dip-dop at the-?”

The girl was cut off by a pained scream, which sounded oddly like Dipper. Her jaw dropped and her terrified eyes stared widely up at Bill, who for a second had turned bright red. “Was that…?” She trailed off, and Bill’s furious eye looked down at her, before she was staring into nothing.

Her shock subsiding, Mabel sprang into action, tearing the bathroom door open and bounding down the stairs. She panicked as she crossed the Mystery Shack floor, ripping open the front door and racing into the garden. “Dipper!”

She raced towards the boy, throwing herself to the ground next to him and inspecting his paling form. If only Stan were here, she thought, as panic rose in her chest and bile did the same in her throat. She needed to phone him, he’d know what she had to do, but she shook her head. Nothing she could do would work fast enough. Maybe she should call an ambulance, but then again, if this was something magical, they’d have no idea how to treat it.

The demon floated above the unconscious boy, his usually sunny body glowing an ugly red, lines above his eye indicating that if he had an eyebrow, he would be furrowing it. “What happened?” Mabel cried, tears welling up in her eyes as she cradled her brother’s head in her lap.

Bill’s black eye settled on the girl, and she stifled a gasp of fear. At the look in her eyes, though, his colour slowly faded back to it’s deceivingly cheerful yellow, and he sank down to hover beside her, his eye staring into her two. The look he shot her seemed to convey a number of things, but the one thing Mabel latched on to was the promise that her brother was going to be okay.

Finally starting to calm down, Mabel noticed that everything was in grey scale – she hadn’t even noticed being pulled into the mindscape. At least that explained why Bill didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Looking down at Dipper, Mabel bit back a sob when she noticed that he, too, was bleached of colour – not because of the mindscape, but because of how much blood was leaking out of him. She could feel a pulse under her fingers, but it was faint, and she felt panic start building inside of her once more.

“Gremloblin.” Bill said, answering the question Mabel had forgotten she’d asked. “Its claws contain neurotoxins.” Mabel stared down at her brother, who looked to be asleep, and if she hadn’t heard his sickening scream when he’d been cut, she would have thought that he was. “Hey, look on the bright side! At least he can’t feel any pain!”

Mabel shot a glare at Bill, though she knew it probably looked more like a pout with tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. “Are you really making jokes about this? If you’re going to leave him die, can you at least let us do it in peace? Haven’t you done enough da-”

“Woah woah woah,” Bill shushed her, holding his hands out. “Who said anything about letting him die?”

Mabel sniffed, “If you’re not here to watch him die, then why?”

Bill’s eye shifted in a way that Mabel knew showed that the demon would be grinning were he to have a mouth, “I'm glad you asked. You see, Shooting Star, I’d like to propose a deal.”

Mabel’s eyebrows shot up, not expecting the demon to sound so serious. Bringing her brother closer to the safety of her chest, not caring that the boy’s blood soaked through her sweater, Mabel frowned slightly. “Go on.”

Bill’s 'grin' widened. “From this day forth, I will keep your brother out of harms way. Starting with fixing everything that currently ails him.”

"For how long?" The girl asked, knowing the way the demon's deals worked. He'd keep Dipper safe for a week and throw him under a car the next. She wasn't taking any chances - not with her brother's life.

"Until the end of time," the demon answered, a patronising air to his voice.

Mabel gulped, “If?” She knew Bill, had known him for six years, and she knew exactly how impossible the demands of such a deal would be.

“If…” Bill dragged out, “You give me something of equal value.”

Mabel’s jaw dropped. “I don’t have something worth as much to me as Dipper’s life!” She looked down at the boy, his face hollow and grey. The only thing worth as much as his life was her own, but she knew Dipper would want nothing with his life if it cost him hers.

Bill circled the girl, scanning her. “Oh, really? Not even this?” The demon lifted a small black hand, the shiny metal hanging from it glinting in the light cast by his glowing form.

Mabel’s hand shot up to her neck, where her mother’s locket had hung moments ago, finding nothing there. In all the years Mabel had known her mother, she had never seen the woman without it. Inside was a photograph of her mother and father on their wedding day, both smiling, staring deeply into each other’s eyes. The look of love in their eyes was everything she had wanted in life as a child.

It was the only photo she had of them.

“That’s all you want?” She asked, looking at the demon with uncertainty in her eyes. “That’s all I have to pay for you to keep Dipper safe?”

The demon nodded, somehow managing the action despite not having a head. “This is all I want from you. Do we have a deal?”

Mabel stared at the boy in her lap. Looking around him at all the blood pooled on the grass, seeping into the earth with every second that passed. If Dipper had found out what she’d given, he would kill her, and then he'd bring her back as a zombie only to kill her again. But at least he would be alive. She looked up at the demon, his one hand extended towards her and the other absently swinging the locket around a finger. He seemed to raise an eyebrow at her look, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Deal.” She grabbed hold of the demons flaming hand, wincing as the heat crawled up her arm.

She forced herself to open her eyes and watch as her brother was engulfed in cerulean flames.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first Gravity Falls fic, and I'm probably in way over my head with this, but I'm going to try my best!! Please let me know if I've made any mistakes, and tell me if there's anything you'd like to see happen in future chapters, and I'll be right on it :D
> 
> Also I have no idea how the mindscape works TBQH


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper wakes up, Mabel eats a cupcake, Dipper gets a job, Bill is as cryptic and "helpful" as ever

Dipper whined when he slipped back into consciousness, memories of terror and agony slashing their way through his brain. All of that was gone now, though, replaced by a comforting warmth that seeped into his bones and cradled him in a peaceful embrace. He felt weightless. There was no pain, not even his ever-present headache or the constant ache in his spine. Something warm weighed heavily down on him, constricting his movements, but he didn’t mind.

Blinking his eyes open, he saw a sloping wooden ceiling above his head. One of the hardwood beams was lined with books, the pages thin and yellowed with age, and a purple lantern hung from a hook nailed in just below. Triangles carved into the edge of the wood glowed the same blue they’d always been. Dipper sighed; he was home.

This inner peace didn’t last long, however, as he let his mind stray to last night – if it even was last night, God knows how long he was out for. He remembered everything up to stumbling past the barrier and falling to the ground. He had blacked out shortly after, a warm yellow light the last thing he saw, lulling him to sleep.

Warm yellow light…

Sleep…

“Oh my God, _Bill_!”

Dipper tried to sit up, but found that he couldn’t move. The once-comforting weight was pushing down on him, pressing him into the mattress, holding him in place. Dipper’s breath came harder and faster as he started to panic. Had Mabel made a deal? What had she asked for? Had Bill tricked her into something she didn’t fully understand? Why couldn’t he move? Dipper shook his head. No, now was not the time to be thinking about himself. Had Mabel made a deal with Bill?

_She wouldn’t have._

The weight on top of him shifted with a low moan, and Dipper’s heart jumped right into his throat. “Bro?” Mabel asked blearily, rubbing at her eyes with a fist. Blinking to clear her eyes, she gasped when she saw dark eyes watching her. Dipper opened his mouth to say something, but before he could Mabel’s arms were around his neck, her head pressing into his throat, crushing painfully against his windpipe. “Dipper, I was so worried! I thought you were never ever going to wake up! And for a minute there I even thought you were going to die on me! But all that’s okay now because you’re awake and don’t you even think about doing that to me again what the hell were you thinking, dumbo!”

Dipper didn’t hug her back. Instead, he brought a hand up to her shoulder and pushed her away from him, following her up so that they were both sitting on the bed. The look he gave her, a mixture of disappointment and dread, told her all she needed to know. She gulped. “Look, Dipper, I-”

“Tell me you didn’t,” he interrupted, fingers gripping her shoulders not hard enough to hurt, but tight enough to preclude any thoughts of shrugging away. Mabel averted her eyes, and his heart sank. “Tell me you were not that stupid.”

“Oh she was!”

Dipper stiffened.

“And I’ve gotta say, Pine Tree, you weren’t acting so smart yourself!” Dipper fired a glare over his shoulder at the demon, ignoring the pain that thrummed through his skull. “Yeesh, kid, relax.” Bill slung an arm over Dipper’s shoulder, “I know we’ve not been the best of friends, but that’s all in the past now! Time to start afresh! Put away old disputes! Pardonne et oublie! Whadaya say?”

“ _Don’t_ touch me,” Dipper all but growled, forcefully shrugging the thin arm off and ignoring Bill’s startled expression. When he looked back to Mabel, saw the fearful way she was eyeing him, his eyes softened and his form relaxed. “What were you thinking?” He asked, trying to ignore the way she shrunk in on herself. “Don’t make deals with demons; that was our one rule. The one thing we would never do! You know what he’s like! Nothing good ever comes out of dealing with him!” His voice grew louder as he went on, and Dipper regretted it as soon as he saw Mabel flinch when he spat out the last word.

“Hey! Words hurt, Pine Tree!”

“Be quiet, Bill?” Dipper was unable to keep the venom out of his voice, and the demon raised his hands in surrender, backing away. All of that anger dissipated, though, when he felt Mabel’s hand tighten around the hem of his shirt. She had done that all the time when they were children and she was afraid.

Tears had built up in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks and dripping off her chin in fat droplets. “I’m so sorry.” More tears fell down her rosy cheeks, and she scrubbed them away with the back of her hand. “I was so scared. I didn’t know what else to do.” She crawled towards Dipper, and this time he took her in his arms, shushing her as he stroked her hair.

He had never seen his strong, beautiful sister look this small.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “I’m okay. I just hope he didn’t ask for something too drastic from you, like your first born child, or a jacket made out of your skin.” Mabel laughed at that, and Dipper smiled into her hair.

“What do you people think of me, honestly?” Bill huffed indignantly, and Dipper gave him a look that was equal parts annoyed and curious.

“What did he ask for, anyway,” Dipper asked his sister, not taking his eyes off the floating triangle in front of him.

Mabel didn’t say anything, just burrowed closer to Dipper’s chest, her fingers clutching tightly to his shirt. The heavy taste of fear filled Dipper’s mouth, and his mind wandered to the demon – more specifically to why he was still here. He had no reason to be, unless he hadn’t collected his payment yet.

Dipper pushed Mabel back a bit, so he could look into her eyes. “Mabel… what did you agree to give him?” Worry ran deep within Dipper’s eyes, the fear darkening them, and Mabel couldn’t speak.

“Nothing too big,” Bill eventually broke the silence, growing bored with the tension between the twins. “Just a necklace made of her teeth and a hat made from her skin – jackets are _so_ last season.” Dipper paled, his skin taking on a sickly green colour as he stared at the demon, speechless.

Bill laughed.

“Calm down Pine Tree! I’m just messing with you! It was just some crummy necklace. A total rip off, if you ask me, but I’ll live. A deal is a deal, at the end of the day.”

Mabel looked up at the mention of the locket, scouring Dipper’s face for a reaction. When she saw the way he seemed to deflate, she wished she hadn’t looked. “Mom’s locket?” He asked, and she nodded. “You loved that thing,” he breathed.

“Not as much as I love you,” she answered quietly.

Dipper stared down at his sister, who managed to smile up at him a little. He was speechless. He couldn’t believe that Mabel had given the only surviving photo of their parents up, for him. He knew that he probably would have died if she hadn’t – even if Mabel had phoned an ambulance and they’d known what to do, he would have lost too much blood by then. He just didn’t know what to say. The two had been growing apart for some time, Mabel too invested in her friends and Dipper too devoted to his books. “Thank you.”

Dipper frowned, remembering the demon hovering over this whole scene. “So, if you’re not here to collect a payment from Mabel, why are you still here? You’ve held up your part of the deal and we’ve held up ours. You can go.”

Bill’s eye crinkled in a mouthless grin, and the look send shivers up Dipper’s spine. “Um… about that…” Mabel said slowly, dragging out every word. A fresh spike of panic sliced its way through Dipper’s body, and his heart beat erratically in his chest, his hand curled into a fist. Was the necklace not the only payment? Had Bill not actually upheld his end of the deal? What even was his end?

Dipper cast an alarmed look at the demon, “Bill.”

Bill’s eye flashed a brilliant blue. “I’m glad you asked!” He exclaimed, his mouthless grin somehow managing to widen. He swooped down and wrapped an arm around Dipper’s shoulders once again, “You’d better get used to me, kid! Because thanks to little-miss-sparkles over here I’m gonna be following you around and keeping you safe until the day you die!”

Bill laughed hysterically.

Dipper buried his head in his hands and groaned.

~~ Δ ~~

For the following week, Bill stayed true to his word. When Dipper went into the forest, Bill was right behind him, occasionally offering up small nuggets of information. When Dipper went to bed, Bill followed, hovering over Dipper and watching him through the night – Dipper tried not to dwell on that part for too long. It had taken three days for Mabel to convince Bill that Dipper was not going to get hurt in the bathroom.

It was becoming apparent that Bill took his deals pretty seriously.

“It’s because of our bond,” Bill had explained with more than a bit of exasperation one day. “When Shooting Star made the deal, she and I were bound together for as long as the deal would last. Then, because of the conditions of the deal, I made another bond with you. Ours is stronger because the bonds that link us do so both mentally and physically. That’s how I will always know when you’re in danger. Not that there will be any instances where I’d allow us to be separated.”

Dipper rolled his eyes. “So you can tell if I’m hurt? What if I hurt myself?” Dipper pinched his arm a couple of times, just hard enough that he felt it without actually hurting himself – he wasn’t sure how the demon’s affiliation for pain worked, aside from the fact that he found it ‘hilarious’, and Dipper didn’t want to do something to upset the demon – he’d seen Bill angry once, and he was not tempted to return to the receiving end any time soon.

Bill eye-scowled at the boy walking alongside him. “Yes.”

Dipper nodded slowly, and the two fell back into a heavy and uncomfortable silence. Every few steps Dipper would glance at Bill out of the corner of his eye, watching for any peculiarities in the demon’s behaviour. Dipper was suspicious of him, that much was obvious, and he didn’t trust him. How could he, after everything that he’d done?

The twins had first met Bill when they were twelve, their first summer in Gravity Falls. The demon had tried to steal information from their great uncle Stan’s brain and then tricked Dipper into having his body possessed – there were still blood stains littered around the shack to prove it. After the incident with the sock puppets, Bill had left them alone.

The twins came back to Gravity Falls the following summer, only to walk into their shared bedroom and find an array of severed animal heads scattered around the room. A little later on in the summer Dipper noticed that there were also little triangles burned into a number of wooden items around the shack, glowing Bill’s blue. He was surprised that Stan and Ford hadn’t noticed.

Bill left them alone the following summer, and Dipper wasn’t sure if he liked it. After all, if Bill wasn’t trying to make his and Mabel’s lives difficult, it meant the demon had something better to do. His mind didn’t dwell on it for too long, however – he was fourteen, his voice had finally stopped breaking all the time and Mabel was adamant that she was going to find him a girlfriend. She never did.

It was the year after that that Bill’s presence became more of a frequency. As soon as word got out that the Pines twins would be staying at Gravity Falls indefinitely, Bill had refused to leave them alone. Every day for just over five months the demon would be in one of their dreams, offering deals, or around the forest pulling pranks. He’d told them that he could stop them from missing their parents, make them forget, could tell them everything they’d ever wanted to know of both of their parents lives, he even went so far as to offer to bring them back from the dead – all it was cost them was one small favour.

It was on the day that Bill somehow managed to invade both siblings’ dreams in the same night and convince them that the other half of the duo would be killed if they didn’t agree to a deal with him, that Mabel and Dipper swore to never make a deal with him – not even if the other was in danger.

It seemed that that pact was broken now, though.

“Hey, kid. Stop that.”

Dipper blinked. “What?”

“Stop looking at me like that. It’s creepy.” Bill said, levelling Dipper with an indiscernible stare.

Dipper barked a laugh, “ _I’m_ the creepy one?”

Somehow, over the course of the week, Dipper had grown to not completely hate Bill’s company. He was a long way off liking having the demon around, and there were still moments when he wanted to banish the demon - to hell with the consequences for breaking a deal. The only thing that stopped him was the thought that it was Mabel’s deal, not his, and if there were repercussions it was her who’d be hurt. He found it quite ironic that the deal his sister had made to save his life had ended up being a burden he was bearing for her. He decided he didn’t like irony.

He couldn’t help but wonder if this was all some elaborate plan of Bill’s. He would lie awake at night, listening to the gentle hum he had noticed Bill’s body made, waiting for the demon to make a move. Try to sneak out. Attack him. Something. But he never did. Dipper convinced himself he was just being paranoid.

~~ Δ ~~

Dipper woke up to the sounds of giggles and the clicks of a camera. He peeled his sleep-snotty eyes open to see Mabel hovering over him, a camera pointed at his face. “Mabel?!” Dipper screamed, pulling his blanket up to cover his bare chest.

When Mabel noticed that Dipper was awake, she quickly tossed the camera to Bill and feigned an innocent, surprised smile, “Hey Dipper! I didn’t know you were awake! What’re you up to? Oh me? I’m not doing anything. Just hanging out in your room with Bill. Completely inconspicuously. Why would you ask? Why’re you being so suspicious? What were you doing? God!”

She laughed nervously, Bill face palmed and Dipper stared at her, unimpressed. “There’s something on my face, isn’t there?”

Mabel grinned sheepishly, and Bill stared up at her incredulously. “Shooting Star, that was terrible. How could you even begin to think that that was a passable lie?”

Dipper rolled his eyes, tossing his sister off him and sitting up, still clutching his quilt to his collarbones. “She rambles when she lies,” he said. “To me, anyway. I’ve never seen her lie to anyone else.”

Bill looked at Dipper, his eye crinkling. “I’m sorry Pine Tree, but I can’t take you seriously looking like that.”

Dipper looked at Mabel, and she giggled, holding the camera out to him. Dipper took it from her and looked at the screen, barking a laugh when he saw what the two had done to him. ‘Goober’ was written in bright red pen across his forehead, completely covering his birthmark, and his fringe was held back with colourful clips adorned with silk flowers. On his one cheek was a crude blue drawing of a triangle with a circle in the middle of it, which Dipper assumed was supposed to be Bill, and underneath it were the words ‘Cipher was here!!’ The other cheek Dipper guessed was Mabel’s responsibility, as there was a colourful drawing of a rainbow arching over a meadow full of flowers and butterflies. Dipper wrinkled his nose, which had been coloured to look like a daisy, and cast a look at Mabel, “How did I stay sleeping through all of this?”

Mabel grinned deviously, “Bill kept you asleep while we worked.”

Dipper snorted, “He can do that?”

“What part of omnipotent dream demon don’t you understand, kid?” Bill snarked, sinking to sit on Dipper’s headboard. He kicked his legs against Dipper’s arm, his pointy feet leaving small red dots all over the boy’s skin. Bill rolled his eye, “And I thought you were supposed to be the smart twin.”

Both Mabel and Dipper shot him an affronted look, “Hey!”

“Anyway!” Bill silenced them. “What are we going to do today? I’m getting bored of sitting around the house.”

Dipper hadn’t been able to go out recently, meaning Bill had to stay inside as well. It was nearing the end of the month, and Dipper still had a load of paperwork left to do. “I can’t. I’m up to my eyeballs in financial stuff.” Dipper was beginning to realise why Stan was so grouchy all the time.

“Why don’t we go to the lake?” Mabel asked, looking to Bill for approval. “Just me and you? Leave Dipper here to do all those boring form-things.”

“I can’t,” Bill said. “I have to stay with him at all times.”

Mabel nodded and Dipper sighed. “We can go next week. I promise.” Mabel pouted up at him. “Don’t give me that look, you know I can’t help it.” She stuck her lip out further. “Mabel,” he warned. She batted her eyelashes, water building up on her tear-ducts. Dipper pressed his lips into a firm line. He would not fall for it this time. He had no idea why that puppy-dog look even worked on him – they had the same face, it was literally exactly the same as his! She sniffed. He shook his head. A tear rolled down her cheek. “Ugh, fine!”

Mabel jumped up in triumph, “Yay!” She grabbed Bill by the hands and started spinning him around in circles, and Dipper rolled his eyes. It was unnerving how close he and Mabel had become, and Dipper hoped it was because of the bond and not… anything else. The last thing he needed was for Mabel to have things in common with Bill Cipher.

“We can go to the mall!” Dipper yelled over them – they had started chanting ‘Pine Tree’ in a rhythm that was eerily similar to the mantra of the society of the blind eye. “I’ve got some stuff I need to do there anyway.”

Mabel stopped spinning, letting the demon hurtle across the room and smack into a bookshelf. She grinned at her brother. “Does that mean what I think that means?” She asked, a glimmer of hope and excitement in her eyes.

“You know it,” Dipper answered, a wide smile stretching involuntarily across his own face.

Bill looked from one teen to another, and he would have raised an eyebrow if he had one to rise. “What are those looks for? They’re terrifying!”

Mabel turned her grin to Bill, and he blinked at the manic look in her eyes. “You’ll find out, don’t you worry. You’ll find out.”

“That was one of the creepiest things I’ve ever heard you say, Star.”

Mabel’s grin turned into a genuine smile, “Thank you.” She turned to Dipper and winced at his colourful skin. “C’mon Dip-Dop. Lets get that stuff off your face before you scare some kids.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room.

“Where would we even find some kids?”

Mabel glanced over her shoulder and smirked, “I think I know a guy.” And Dipper laughed. Sometimes she was so much like their Grunkle Stan it started to scare him. At least that explained why she was so good at coming up with improvements for the Shack.

Something tugged at his mind that that was also a very ‘Bill’ thing to say.

He ignored it.

~~ Δ ~~

Dipper was just about done, and it had only been half an hour. The mall was more crowded than usual, and he could barely take a step without knocking shoulders with someone or getting his foot stomped on. There were crying children everywhere, and about half of them were accompanied by mothers who looked to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown. There were endless numbers of teenagers scattered about the place, enjoying the last few days before they had to return to school. Dipper feared for their lives when he saw the predatory way Mabel was eyeing the older ones.

Said huntress had already spent all of her money and half of Dipper’s, and was now whining about how her sticky cotton-candy fingers had caught in her curls when she’d tossed her hair ‘flirtatiously’ at a ‘super cute guy’ who, to Dipper at least, looked like a bearded fish. Dipper cringed every time he saw the girl wink in someone’s direction, and it really made him miss the days when she would employ more innocent tactics, like her creepy and slightly stalkeresque love letters.

“Mabel, do you have to do that to every guy you see?” Dipper groaned, grabbing her wrist and pulling her into a small coffee shop.

The girl giggled, “Of course I do!” And aimed two pistols and a wink at a man sat alone in the corner of the shop. The man choked on his coffee, his cheeks flaring red, and Dipper groaned. He was all for his sister going after every guy she saw, but not when he was there to watch it.

“C’mon,” he said, taking his sister’s hand and dragging her to the most reclusive table he could find and pushing her into a seat. “Sit here, I’ll buy you some cake.”

Dipper made his way over to the counter, glad that this place was pretty small, tucked into an isolated area of the mall. There didn’t seem to be a queue, so he moved to stand at the counter and wait for someone to notice he was there.

His fingers tapping against the wooden counter, Dipper looked around the shop. It was oddly empty for a Saturday; Dipper would have expected the threadbare red couches to be taken up by a swarm of teenagers. The tangible scent of coffee and clove-cigarettes in the air was overwhelming. There were poppies and sunflowers in vases on the larger tables and hanging in baskets from beams on the ceiling. Framed paintings of what looked - to Dipper’s artistically blind mind – like random squiggled lined the walls, adding a modern twist to the somehow ageless shop. It was such a stark contrast to the rest of the mall, and Dipper was surprised by how empty it was.

It was so peaceful.

“Heya Pine Tree!”

And there it went.

Dipper glared up at Bill, trying to mask the fact that Bill had scared the living shit out of him. “Don’t do that!”

The demon laughed in that obnoxious way of his, floating down to sit on the glass box concealing all of the shop’s confectionaries. Dipper eyed him warily, “Can’t anyone see you?” Bill had made himself scarce the moment Dipper and Mabel had entered the mall. He had assumed that Bill had made himself invisible to avoid the wandering eyes of the shoppers.

“They can, they just don’t want to.” At Dipper’s confused look, Bill added, “Humans like to pretend that things like me don’t exist. So much so that when we’re right in front of them their little brains just blot us out.”

Dipper frowned, “You’re being surprisingly un-cryptic today. Are you sick?”

The demon glared.

“Uh… can I take your order?” A nasally voice asked, and Dipper’s smirk fell right off his face when he saw the weird and kind of worried look the teenager behind the counter was giving him. The kid had dark curly hair and pale, almost grey, skin. His lips were stretched into an obviously forced smile, revealing sharp canines and chipped incisors. Dipper’s first thought was vampire, but he shook his head to clear the thought. Not every person you meet is a supernatural monster, he heard Mabel say in his head.

“Yeah! Sorry about that, um, just give me the pinkest, sparkliest thing you have. Please.” The teen raised an eyebrow at that and the demon next to him chuckled. Heat rushed to Dipper’s face. “It’s for my sister.” He tacked on.

“Sure it is, buddy,” the barista replied. “Anyway, that’ll be three dollars. Tell your,” the boy coughed, “sister, I hope she enjoys it.”

Bill was in hysterics at this point, tiny fists pounding against Dipper’s shoulders, and Dipper’s face was so hot he didn’t even want to think about how red it was. “I’ll do that,” he said, then to Bill he hissed, “I am going to kill you with your own hat!”

“What?” The boy asked.

“Nothing!” Dipper sang, smiling brightly. He grabbed the plate and scurried off to Mabel, who of course was no longer sitting at the table, and Bill continued to laugh from where he’d landed on Dipper’s shoulder, too exhausted from how funny he found Dipper’s complete and utter embarrassment to stay afloat.

Dipper was starting to regret not banishing the demon when he had the chance.

Dipper had thought about it a lot over the past week; just opening a portal to the demon home-world and pushing Bill in. He knew that he wouldn’t do it, of course, for the massive reason of Mabel.

But other than that, while Bill’s company was far from enjoyable, it was interesting. Bill knew so much more than Dipper could ever find out on his own – all he had to do was catch Bill in the right mood, and ask. And really, Bill was only doing his job all those times he’d tried to thwart them before, and-

Dipper bit his tongue to stop himself. Great. Now he was defending the homicidal actions of a psychopath.

He needed professional help.

“You’re staring at me,” Bill said. “Why are you staring at me? Do I have something on my face!?”

“You don’t have a face.”

Bill sighed, staring straight ahead, not looking at Dipper. He wondered why. Biting his lip, Dipper looked down at the demon. He didn’t know what Dipper had been thinking about, did he? He would never live it down if Bill started to get the idea that he was… growing on him. Heh, Dipper laughed at his own phrasing. Bill was growing on him; like a weed. And as soon as he figured out a way to break the deal without hurting Mabel, Bill would be uprooted and replanted back where he belonged – as far away from the Pines Twins as he could get.

Dipper cast yet another glance down at the Demon. Maybe he knew of some way to break the deal? The more Dipper thought about it, the more it started to make sense that Bill would want to break the deal and find the fastest route away from them and the Shack, too.

He debated with himself for a few more minutes before he decided that it couldn’t hurt to ask. “Listen, Bill,” Dipper began.

“Yes, Pine Tree,” Bill answered, not taking his eyes off a girl sitting across the shop from them. Every now and then she would glance up at where they were sitting, and Dipper started to wonder if she could see Bill. That was the only reason she would be interested in them. Maybe she was a monster too! Dipper shook his head – he had to stop doing that. He pretended not to notice her.

“About this deal-” he dragged out.

“No.” Bill cut him off, his body flashing red for a split second, and Dipper blanched. “I’m not going to break the deal, Pine Tree. So stop asking. And thinking about it. And dreaming about it. There’s only so much offence a guy can take.”

“So I’m stuck with you.” Bill tipped his body forward in a kind of nod, still staring at the redheaded girl, his eye narrowed in concentration. Dipper let out a sigh, “Lucky me.”

~~ Δ ~~

Mabel finally arrived back at the coffee shop almost an hour later, three bags and four phone numbers in hand. She’d muttered a quick apology, screamed when she saw her half-eaten cupcake - Dipper got hungry - and proceeded to text a picture of it to all of her friends. Dipper deemed it three dollars well spent.

It was dark when they got back to the shack, the fireflies – Dipper still hadn’t figured out how they’d ended up in Oregon – flickering happily around the Shack. Dipper had carried Mabel’s bags in from the car and taken them up to her room, and then he slinked off to his own room, closing the door behind him and pulling a book off the shelf next to the window. He still had a ton of work to do.

But his mind kept straying.

Mabel and Bill had been talking animatedly about a new sweater design she’d sketched out during the car ride home, and Dipper couldn’t help but laugh at how into it the demon was getting. Who could have guessed that Bill Cipher, destroyer of Kings and Countries alike, would be into knitting? Dipper was worried for his sister, though. Just a few weeks ago she would have gladly eradicated Bill from every plane of existence known to man, and as far as he knew Bill would have done the same to them. But now... Now they were talking about knitting patterns and how few yellow jumpers Mabel owned and how she should definitely make more yellow jumpers.

As Mabel and Bill had grown closer, Dipper had started to wonder if it was all a side effect of the deal the two had made. Hoped that it was, even. There was something disturbing about watching a friendship between your sister and your potential murderer take root and blossom. With a sigh, Dipper closed his book on law – turned out Grunkle Stan’s business practices were not strictly legal, and it required a lot of fancy footwork to keep the secret – and went to his shelf to grab one on demonic contracts.

Over the years, Dipper had collected more books to do with the things that went bump in the night than he knew what to do with. The one he’d grabbed he’d kept just in case one of the townsfolk got themselves into a sticky situation, and he’d only skimmed through it, figuring that no one in his immediate family would be so desperate as to make a deal. He sighed when he saw how thin the book was. He’d be surprised if it held any useful information, but he had to start somewhere, and this book was probably it. He thumbed through the first few pages until he found the contents page. He muttered the sections aloud, “Introduction… Rules… Breaking a Deal… Side Effects?”

“Whatcha reading there?”

Dipper screamed, slamming his book closed and falling off the bed in a tangle of limbs.

“Holy shit, kid, that was priceless!” Dipper glared up at the demon, and he did an excellent job of ignoring him. “You should have seen your face! I should scare you more often!”

“What do you want, Bill?” Dipper asked, clambering up and frowning at the floating triangle.

“Shooting Star-” he wheezed, flopping head-first - point-first? - on to the bed and spreading his limbs out. He seemed to be catching his breath, and Dipper made a mental note to ask him if he actually needed to breathe or if it was just for dramatic effect. Probably the latter. “She says there’s someone at the door, but she can’t answer it, because she has hollow beauty cylinders woven into her hair and so can’t be seen by other humans.”

A sound trilled through the shack, which Dipper recognised as the doorbell, and he glanced at the clock. No one should be looking for a tour at this time of night. Dipper nodded and exited the room, leaving the demon sprawled on his bed. He had to walk through the kitchen to get to the front door, and he raised an eyebrow at Mabel, who had rollers in her hair and had painted her fingernails a very recognisable shade of yellow. When she noticed him staring she rolled her eyes and jabbed her thumb in the direction of the door.

Dipper shook his head at her and crossed the floor to the door, swinging it open with a dull thud as it collided with the wall.

There was a girl standing on the lawn, body facing away from the shack, walking back towards her car. “Can I help you?” Dipper asked, and she spun around.

If she noticed that Dipper was in his pyjamas, she didn’t say anything, only moved closer to the door. She had long red hair, dark shadows under her eyes, and smelled like coffee and clove-cigarettes.

“I’m looking for Dipper Pines?” Her voice was deeper than he’d expected it to be, huskier – probably because of all the smoking.

Dipper frowned. “I saw you in the coffee shop.” He mused, remembering how Bill wouldn’t stop staring at her. “How can I help?”

“Are you him? Dipper Pines?” Dipper nodded, and she breathed a sigh laced with relief. “Can I come in? I need to speak with you.”

Dipper narrowed his eyes, hoping this woman wasn’t yet another lawyer, though he doubted they would go this far to get to him. “What about?”

The girl gulped, holding her willowy arms tighter to her chest, burrowing her hands under the cuffs of her green jumper, and Dipper could swear she was blinking that quickly to fight back tears. “It’s my sister.” She stated slowly, as if trying to protect herself from the words she spoke. “She’s gone missing.”

Dipper nodded, and stepped out of the way of the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dipper needs to stop ignoring things. I will get to the actual point of this (the Billdip!!!!) really soon!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those of you who're subscribed to this, firstly, i am so sorry this took so long, secondly, yes it is exactly the same as the chapter three i published forever ago.

The girl sat at the kitchen table, scruffy red hair tossed over one shoulder. At a closer look, her jumper was torn and dirty, and she smelled like the forest; she must have tried looking for her sister herself. She cradled a cup of coffee in her hands, her sleeves pulled down to protect her hands from the heat of the mug. In the light of the room, it was more obvious how exhausted she must have been – dark purple smudges under her eyes, tearstains on her cheeks, her nose red and running. She had fine features, long and thin, and she was pretty. Dipper was sure she’d be even prettier is she weren’t so distraught.

She had lost her sister, she said, and at first Dipper had thought that she was just trying to gain access to the Shack, for whatever reason. But now? Dipper knew that if anything ever happened to Mabel, he would be in the exact same state as this girl. Either she was a phenomenal actress, or she really needed their help.

Mabel walked through the door, a beacon of hope in a pink bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. She walked straight up to the girl and wrapped her in a tight hug, almost spilling the girl’s coffee all over her. “We’ll find your sister. I promise.” She said, releasing the girl. “But you have to tell us what happened.”

When Dipper had invited the girl in, she had accepted his offer of coffee, but had yet to say anything. Dipper had asked her a few times if she was ready to tell them what had happened, and each time she shook her head. Bill, who had made an appearance after about five minutes, offered to torture it out of her. Mabel had quickly escorted him back upstairs.

He’d followed her back down, of course – Dipper could sense his magic pulsing through the room, wrapping around every object and pushing down on his body. He wondered if Mabel could feel him, too. He’d ask later. For now, he was focused on the redhead. The most likely explanation was gnomes – they were always on the lookout for a new queen. If he was lucky that was all it would be, if he wasn’t… well, he just hoped he’d get to her in time.

The girl took a deep breath. “Okay.” Mabel sat down next to the girl, her hand resting atop the other’s, her thumb brushing against the redheads wrist. “My name is Taryn Patterson. My sister is Kirstie. Our parents left to travel a few months ago, so it was just me and her. I was supposed to look after her-” Taryn sniffed, and Mabel gave her hand a little squeeze.

“She loved the woods. Every day she went playing in there; I thought she was safe. Our back garden leads right into the forest. I thought she was just behind the treeline, only just out of sight. But three days ago she went to play, and she never came back. I went to the police, but they brushed it off. Said that people go missing all the time around here, and if she doesn’t make her own way back then… then she…” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, and she buried her face in her hands. “She can’t be dead! She can’t be!”

Mabel and Dipper exchanged a glance.

Dipper crouched down next to the girl, “Taryn? Taryn, I need you to tell me where you live.” The girl sniffed, exhaling shakily. “Please? I can’t find your sister if I don’t know where she went in.”

Taryn looked up at this, her eyes peeking over her wet arm. “You- You think she’s still alive?”

Dipper nodded, “For now, yes. There are a number of things that might have taken her, but I need to know where she was if I’m to narrow it down. Depending on what they want with her, she might not last much longer.”

Taryn’s green eyes seemed to swell with hope, and her face looked less ghostly already. “Number four Jenkin Street. It’s half a mile away from the willow clearing, if that helps?”

Dipper smiled, “It’s a start.” The girl stared at him, and he felt his face heat up. “So, uh, I’ll do that. Get a start, I mean. Yeah…” Mabel raised an eyebrow. “Bye!” Dipper turned tail and ran upstairs.

Mabel flashed Taryn a knowing smile, “He’s a weirdo.”

Δ

A high pitched cackle grated against Bill’s much softer frequency, his eye twitching as the scratching vibrations rubbed up against him, creating static. “Bill Cipher, what a _deeeelightful surpriiiiise_!” A voice crooned, and Bill repressed a shudder.

“Haha, while I am delightful, I’m no surprise! You summoned me here! I had no choice in the matter,” Bill pointed out, swinging his cane to hide his unease –  _would she notice?_

“There’s no need to look so frightened, Cipher! I’m not mad at you! Though I might be if it isn’t cut off sooooon!”  _Oh yeah, she noticed_. “Though I must say, fear is a very good look on you~” she purred, floating towards him and hanging herself off his arm.

“Frightened – ha!” Bill laughed, repressing a shudder as he forced himself not to shove her away. “Of what? You? Sorry, legs, but that’s never gonna happen!”

Pursing her lips, the pentagonal demon blew a breath at Bill, the cold air brushing against his left corner and crystallising into ice. Shooting a glare her way, Bill engulfed himself in flames, melting the ice and singeing his pink conversation partner in the process. He stifled a laugh. “You’d better not be backing out on me now, Cipher,” she growled, her three eyes narrowing on the triangular demon.

“ _Relax,_  Snide, I’ll stick to the plan.” Bill rolled his eye, “But I’m afraid you might  _ruin it for us_  if you  _keep me here_  any  _longer!_ ”

With an indignant curl of her lips, Eliza Snide waved a hand, releasing her hold on the usually stronger demon and reopening the door for him to slip back into the human dimension. “I’ll be watching you, Cipher,” she growled, and watched as he flashed out of the shadowy dimension.

Δ

“Bill Cipher that is an obscene amount of sugar!” Mabel scolded as the dream demon scooped the fourth teaspoon out of the sugar jar, “I am so proud of you!”

Bill grabbed hold of the end of the teaspoon, almost as long as his arm, and dropped it into the mug. A small splash of coffee spilled out over the rim of the cup, landing on Bill’s triangular body with a sound not unlike rain on a window. The brown liquid seemed to get absorbed into the demon, and Bill’s eye twitched, his small yellow body shuddering. “Shooting Star, that tastes like motor oil and rotten guts!”

Mabel giggled, sidling up alongside the demon and picking up the mug. “I know. I much prefer Mabel-juice – I invented it myself – but Dip-Dop refuses to try it!”

Bill sniggered.  _Dip-Dop_.

Mabel grinned, turning around carefully so as not to spill the coffee and making her way to the staircase. Bill floated behind her, idly tugging at a tiny fistful of brown hair. “How long has he been awake?” She asked quietly as they approached the final stair.

Bill looked down at his wrist, a movement that made Mabel grin at the thought of Bill wearing a tiny wristwatch – _classic!_ “As of right now, fifty-six hours, thirty four minutes and fourteen, fifteen, sixteen-”

“Yowza!” Mabel winced, remembering a time when she had almost passed out after pulling her first – and last – all nighter. She nudged Dipper’s bedroom door open with her hip and poked her head through the crack.

Dipper stared down at the book in his lap, a pen that had been mauled to the point of almost-death in less than five minutes hanging from his lips. He glanced from the old tome balanced between his thighs to the notebook he had set at his feet, comparing the facts Taryn had given him to the ones listed in the book. Double checking the age range of all known wilderbard kidnappings, Dipper dismissed the clan living in the forest as suspects – Kirstie was too old for their liking.

Dipper sighed at the two stacks of books in front of him, one significantly smaller than the other, and he scrubbed at his face with the heels of his hands. There was only so much research he could do – he needed to be out there, in the forest, looking for clues and  _finding the girl_. If it were Mabel that was missing- Dipper shook his head, dismissing the thought. Thinking like that would only make his mind less productive. He needed to focus on this case.

Think of the devil and she shall appear, Mabel poked her head around Dipper’s bedroom door. “Bro-bro? I-” a throat was cleared behind her, “ _we,_  brought you coffee. Can I come in?”

Dipper smiled, shifting a few of the books around to make room for his sister to sit. “Yeah. Thanks Mabes,” the throat was cleared again, and Dipper shook his head, amused, “ _you too,_  Bill.”

“You are quite welcome Pine Tr- whoa! You look terrible!” The demon floated from behind Mabel’s back to hover in front of Dipper’s face, tiny black hands reaching out to poke at the purple skin beneath the boy’s eyes.

“Says the talking yellow tortilla chip,” Dipper snapped back, accepting the mug of coffee from his sister and blowing air at the tiny demon, trying to dislodge him from his face. Mabel shot Dipper a warning glare as she sank down to sit in the only empty floor space in the room, her eyes reiterating what she’d said numerous times already; _be nice_. Ignoring the demon’s indignant huff, Dipper swatted him out of the way and levelled his sister with a serious stare. “Okay, so I’ve narrowed it down to five creatures that could have taken this kid, all of which can and will fatally injure her if she provokes them. We need to find her as soon as possible, so we’ll be going out early tomor- what’s that look for?”

Mabel’s sheepish smile turned into a grimace, and she stared at a spot on Dipper’s cheek when she said, “Cif just called. She wants me to go to California with her tonight. I was just popping in here to tell you.”

Dipper forced a smile. “Oh, okay, that’s cool. I’ll go by myself.”

The throat was cleared for the third time, more exaggerated this time, and both Pines twins spun around to face Bill, who was hovering just in front of the window with his image carved into it. “Forgetting someone, Pine Tree?” He asked touchily.

Something about the way the red shape behind the demon outlined his body unnerved Dipper, and before he could stop himself he said blankly, “You’re not coming.”

Bill flashed from yellow to red, and Mabel sucked in a shallow breath, holding it in. “And why not?” Bill asked. He seemed to be growing marginally larger, his body now eclipsing the glass him just behind.

“Because,” Dipper was quick to explain, startled and a little frightened by the demon’s sudden display of anger. “Knowing you, you’ll wait until we get to the siren-infested lake and then  _push me in it_.”

Bill narrowed his eye, “What part of ‘protecting you until the end of time’ didn’t you understand, kid? I can’t hurt you, or the deal is off. Do you know what happens to demons who back out of their deals?” Bill was the same height as the ceiling now, his eye the size of a car zeroing in on Dipper, who shook his head. “Neither do I, and I’m not planning on finding out any time soon! So, I shall say it again, for anyone who might have misheard. I’m. Coming. Too.”

Dipper gulped, then nodded his confirmation, “Okay.”

In the time it took Dipper to blink, Bill was back to his bright yellow self, only just taller than a standard paperback, and Mabel shakily released her breath. Eye crinkling in what Dipper was sure was meant to be a grin, Bill placed a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “Good! Now, we have _got_ to work on those _facial expressions_! As _entertaining_ and _mind-numbingly hilarious_ as they are, it’s going to be a _long day_ tomorrow if every creature we talk to can read your thoughts as clear as day off of your face!”

“My face is fine!” Dipper argued, heat rising to his cheeks only adding to his oppositions proof.

Mabel laughed. “Okay, broseph, whatever you say!” She raised a hand to pat him on the cheek, fingers sliding across his face when something sharp prickled against her skin. “You do need to shave, though. If you go to rescue Kirstie looking like that she just might be tempted to stay with the monster!”

Ignoring Bill’s laugh and slapping his sister’s hand away, Dipper glared at her. “Don’t you have packing to do?”

Mabel grinned, bringing her hand up again to squash Dipper’s cheeks together, his lips puckering under the pressure. “If you keep pouting like that, the wind will change and your face will be stuck like that,” she warned, already rising to her feet.

As she slipped out of the door, pulling it shut behind her, Bill moved to float in front of Dipper, his hands copying what Mabel’s had done just a moment ago. “Is that true, Pine Tree?” He asked, and Dipper would have laughed if it hadn’t been _Bill bloody Cipher_ staring curiously at him. He grabbed to demon by the point and set him down on a stack of books, shaking his head no.

Δ

Walking through the forest, Dipper was staring at Bill again – though this time it was for a completely different reason. Dipper still didn’t know what Bill’s endgame was – god knows he wouldn’t be making a deal as powerful as this without attaching _some_ strings to blackmail them with. He didn’t know how he came to the conclusion that staring at Bill constantly would provide him with an answer, but that’s what he was doing, and so far it hadn’t turned out to be such a bad plan.

Dipper had started to notice little things. The way Bill swung his cane around in his hand when he was bored, or thought danger was nearby. The way his eye would narrow every now and then, his expression changing so frequently it was almost like he was having a heated debate with himself inside the confines of his mind. Dipper had also started noticing little things that Bill did, seemingly for no reason at all. He would shoot a spark of magic at a spider’s web, starving the spider but saving the fly. He would unfreeze an icicle, the spike of solid water impaling an insect scuttling across the ground but providing a family of… whatever those creatures were, with something to drink.

He wondered if there really was something to Mabel’s theory that Bill wasn’t all that bad. If Bill seriously had mellowed after all these years, learned to appreciate the things going on around him, invisible unless you take the time to really notice, then he had to seriously consider if the cold way he had been treating the dream demon was just a little bit harsh.

“Why do you do that?” Dipper asked, his curiosity finally overtaking over his fear of being brutally murdered by a triangle when Bill lit a tree branch on fire, burning it to ashes before it fell into a birds nest full of eggs. 

Bill’s attention flitted to Dipper. “Why do I do what?”

“You know! The thing you just did! Burning that branch to save those eggs!”

Bill looked genuinely puzzled, scanning Dipper’s face for a moment before understanding dawned in his eye. “Oh, you mean _that?_ Well, Pine Tree, if you _really_ want to know, why don’t we make a deal? For every-” 

“No,” Dipper turned him down, immediately.

“You don’t even know what I was going to-”

“Answer’s still no. I will not make a deal with you.” Dipper interrupted again, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Fine!” Bill sighed, his yellow glow dimming for a second before perking up again. “I know! Let’s not make a deal, let’s play a game!”

Dipper barked a laugh, “What? You’re the guy from saw now?”

Bill’s glow faltered, “I don’t understand that reference.” Dipper laughed again, and Bill rolled his eye. “Anyway! As I was saying before you _rudely_ interrupted, for every question I answer for _you_ , you have to answer one for _me_. Deal?” 

Dipper hesitated for a moment. His curiosity screamed _yes_ but his sanity and self-preservation cried _no_. “Not a deal. Just… just a- just a game.”

Bill’s eye seemed to grin. “Whatever you say, kid!”

Dipper nodded, a frown easing up a little as he eyed the demon. “Okay. So, I guess I’ve already asked my first question. Why do you do it?”

Bill’s yellow grew brighter. “Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed! I just like setting things on fire!” Dipper felt reality shoot through him like an arrow, and his mouth popped open into a little ‘o’. _Bill hadn’t learned from his past and grown as a person,_ he thought, _he’s just an asshole!_ Bill’s expression turned thoughtful, “I should probably look into that, actually. Don’t want the creatures around here to think I’m _nice_ or something!”

Lost for words, Dipper just stared straight ahead, only glancing at Bill occasionally instead of flat-out staring.

“Why do you keep doing _that_?” Bill asked after a tense five minutes. When Dipper ignored him, Bill moved closer, poking Dipper in the face with a small finger. “C’mon kid, tell me why you keep looking at me!” Dipper glared at Bill, and the demon brought his hands up to where his cheeks would be. “You’re not falling for me are you?” He teased.

Dipper barked a laugh, “You wish!” He fell back into silence, feeling Bill’s gaze on him but not brave enough to meet it. Bill’s eye seemed to grow heavier, the weight of his watchful stare almost crushing Dipper into the ground, and he figured that the only way to escape such scrutiny would be to answer the question. “Mabel seems to think that you _are_ nice,” Dipper started, throwing the demon’s word back at him, “and while I trust her judgement, that just seemed like too much of a stretch. So, I was watching what you were doing, to find out for myself.” Bill was silent for a few moments, and Dipper took it as an invitation to voice his conclusion. "I was starting to think that she was right, but I guess _I_ was, after all."

He shrugged, and they slipped back into silence.

They continued on their way through the forest, Bill whistling annoyingly as Dipper led them to the Gravity Falls lake to meet with the last potential suspects on their list – the sirens.

Dipper has long since discovered a pattern in siren killings that was currently his only fuel for hope – they only ever ate the men. Sirens preferred to keep the women as pets, ordering them to entertain them until the girls either drowned or starved to death. Dipper was hoping upon hope that they’d find the girl there, because if they didn’t, she was gone. And if that were true, there was no way he was every getting her back. There was, of course, a way for him to retrieve her from the other side, but he had vowed years ago that necromancy was off limits. The only time he had ever been tempted to use such dark magic was back when their parents had crossed over, and it was then that he and Mabel had promised on their own blood that for as long as they lived they would _never_ attempt something so dangerous.

Dipper froze.  _When had Bill stopped whistling?_

He looked over at the demon, who had grown considerably larger, his body almost the same length as Dipper's legs. He didn’t glow so brightly anymore, just barely lighting the surrounding area. Shuffling closer to the triangle, Dipper whispered, "What's wro-?"

"Shh!"

Dipper frowned, "Bill, serio-"

"Shut up, kid!"

Dipper snapped his mouth closed, curiosity reaching almost overwhelming levels. And then he heard it. Low voices broke through the treeline, silvery and eerie and ethereally beautiful, weaving tunes of sorrow and joy and love and all that lay in between through the forest. Just a few feet away, through the thick covering of trees, Dipper saw gleaming water, the sun reflecting off the surface winking at him. Ripples danced across the surface of the lake, shimmering bodies effortlessly slicing through them with such a grace that nothing he had ever seen was comparable. Dipper's feet shuffled forwards without his noticing, and it was only when a small black hand was laid against his shoulder did he stop.

"Now I knew you were stupid," Bill started, his eye lidded as he stared at the boy he had been _starting_ to have hope for. "But walking into a den of siren's is a new low."

Dipper didn't say a word, just continued to stare at the water with a hazy expression, no light in his eyes, as if all of his focus was directed towards something deep inside. It reminded Bill of the faces the boy made during _certain_ dreams that he was quite frequently kicked out of, though at this particular moment in time he had to admit it wasn't as much fun to watch. Bill clicked his fingers in front of the boy's face, and when that did nothing to capture the boy's attention, he slapped him a little bit. Still, there was no response. It was only then that he remembered: sirens. Scolding himself for not digging it out of his infinite knowledge sooner, Bill clicked his fingers, sending two little flames through either side of Dipper's head.

Eyes quickly snapping back to focus, Dipper screamed, hands coming up to press against his ears, as if that would eradicate the pain. Bill stared at him, his eye almost mockingly indifferent as he waited for Dipper to finish.  _You done yet?_  He asked, his voice echoing within Dipper's mind.

"What did you do to me?" Dipper asked out loud, voice loud and angry.

 _I perforated your eardrums,_ Bill answered, matter-of-factly.

"What?!" Dipper screamed.

**_I perforated your eardrums!_ **

Dipper glared. "I heard you the first time, _Bill_ , I just-  _why_  would you do that?"

Bill shrugged.  _Sirens._

Pressing a hand against his forehead, Dipper groaned. "You couldn't have gotten me earplugs?"

_What are earplugs?_

Dipper rolled his eyes at the demon's confused expression, then glanced towards the lake, where he was sure he'd just seen a streak of very familiar red hair. "You're fixing this. Now come on, I think I saw something."

Dipper moved through the underbrush until he came to the last tree, at which point the forest broke off on to sandy shore. He couldn’t hear it, but he could see the laughter, bubbling out of their throats in what he imagined was a captivating sound. The sirens’ thick tails splashed in the water, their hair whipping out behind them as they danced in the lake. Dipper’s hear melted with relief when he saw that at the centre of the sirens’ fun, sat a small girl. If Dipper were to hazard a guess, he’d say she was around nine years old, with red hair down to her waist and dark brown freckles scattered over pale skin. Her pointed nose was familiar, and the girl was immediately recognisable as Taryn’s sister. 

 _Got a plan?_ Bill spoke into the boy’s brain, and Dipper shuddered at the feeling of that pitched voice crawling through his mind.

 _Run in and grab the kid?_ Dipper thought, choosing to keep the information from Bill for now. _If the sirens see me they’ll sing. Maybe the shock when they realise their magic won’t work on me will be enough for me to slip past them._

Bill cackled. _Keeping things from me is never a good plan, Pine Tree. Proof is in the fact that you actually think that_ that _is a good idea._

Dipper stared up at the demon. _Did he just read my mind?_ Instantly followed by, _could I have been talking to him like this the whole time?_

Dipper scowled. _Do you have any better ideas?_

 _I do~_ the demon drawled, _but it’s gonna cost ya!_

Before Dipper could say another word, an ear splitting shriek sounded through the forest, somehow managing to breach Dipper’s mind. It froze him in his place, the sound like nails on a blackboard sending a shiver down his spine, leaving an unpleasant ache behind. His wide eyes turned their focus to the demon. “Did you hear that?”

_The sound of your stupidity? Yes. It’s deafening._

Dipper glared. “Seriously, Bill! What the hell was that?”

The sound came again, closer this time, and Dipper could feel a slight vibration under his feet. Whatever had made that sound was very powerful, very large, and getting closer. In the lake, the sirens had started screeching, disappearing under the water one by one in their haste to escape. Kirstie, who was still perched atop a rock a few metres from the shore looked terrified, more so than before, and Dipper was racing towards her before he even knew his feet were moving.

 _Pine Tree, what are you doing? Get back here!_ Bill screamed inside the boy’s head. He couldn’t help him here. If he got hurt, he couldn’t do a thing to save him.

Dipper dove into the lake, water jumping above the surface as it parted. As he neared the girl, her eyes were trained on him, relief overtaking the ghostly green irises as she too jumped in the water, hurriedly scrambling towards Dipper. When she neared him, he wrapped her in his arms, muttering something under his breath as he ducked beneath the surface.

Bill watched with bated breath. He wasn’t ready for the kid to die, not just yet, and he would not be happy if his plans were ruined _this_ close to completion because of a _Pine Tree_ with a _hero_ _complex_ not realising that _if humans inhale water THEY DROWN._

The sound of thundering feet had long since disappeared from the forest, but Bill didn’t dare go to the water’s surface to drag Dipper out just yet. It was then that he noticed bubbles rising up to the top of the lake. Not many, just a few at a time, then getting more and more until there was a dome of air bubbles rising and bursting and spitting water out of its way in a struggle to rise from the depths of the blue, and then Dipper was breaking through the surface, the girl clinging to his shoulders as she gulped in as much air as her lungs could take.

Dipper dragged her to the surface, depositing her on the shore before falling to the sand himself, filling his lungs with air almost as desperately as she was. When he noticed Bill hovering just in front of him, Dipper’s eyes grew hard. “Thanks for the help,” he spat, and Bill pretended that the look didn’t hurt.

 

Δ

 

Dipper hadn’t said a word since they’d left the lake, beginning their trek back to the shack on a sour note and somehow managing to keep it playing for over an hour. Bill had restored the boy’s hearing, and Dipper had been quick to sever the connection between their minds, bricking it up with a wall thick enough for Bill to grow tired of trying to break it. He made a mental note to remove the boy’s memory of how to do that later.

Just because Dipper was silent, didn’t mean that Kirstie was, though. She clung to Dipper’s back with one arm like a spider monkey, using the other arm to poke at Bill’s corner with a curious finger. “Hey!” She called, and Bill ignored her, floating a little higher to allude her irritating grasp.

She climbed a little higher on Dipper’s back. “Hey!” She said again, going back to poking at the demon. “Hey hey hey! Hey mister! Hey! Talk to me! Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”

Bill turned his eyes to the girl. “What, kid?” He pretended not to notice the way Dipper seemed to enjoy his torment. 

“What are you made out of? It’s shiny!” She asked, reaching out and brushing her fingers against his corner.

Bill cast a pleading look at Dipper, and the boy smirked, shrugging his shoulders in a way that told Bill he would _not_ be getting any help from there. _How can Pine Tree be so cold and heartless?_ He thought. _It would be impressive if I wasn’t the victim._

“Hey! I said: what are you made out of!”

“The souls of the damned,” Bill answered bluntly. At Dipper’s curious stare, Bill’s face fell into a look that seemed to say, _no I’m not made out of the souls of the damned! What’s wrong with you?_

“What’s a sow-ul?” The girl asked, then shook her head, discarding the thought. “What’s the biggest thing you can think of?” She asked.

“Infinity,” he answered, once again floating away from the prodding hand.

“Well what about infinity plus one?” She asked triumphantly, a smug smile on her little face, and Bill narrowed his eye at her.

“I hate you.” 

Dipper chuckled, readjusting the girl to sit on his hip as he dug around in his back pocket for his phone. Pulling it out, he dialled a number and pressed the phone up to his ear, which was still a little sore after being temporarily deafened. Taryn answered on the first ring, hope in her voice when she said, “Dipper?”

Dipper smiled a little. From the speed with which the girl answered, he guessed that she’d been anxiously sitting by her phone waiting for the call. “How soon can you be at the Mystery Shack?” He asked.

Bill’s eye narrowed at the warmth in Dipper’s voice. _He’s never spoken to_ me _like that,_ he thought, a little irritably.

“I’m there right now,” she answered. There was a soft buzz to her voice, an excitement and nervousness that Dipper could thoroughly understand in a way that he thought only a fellow sibling could. 

“Hey dude!” Dipper heard Soos call out in the background, and Dipper laughed as he greeted the man back.

Bill’s eye narrowed further – _I’ve definitely never heard the kid do_ that _._

Dipper hadn’t seen Soos since he’d eloped with Melody three years ago, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t excited to see how he was doing. They had grown a lot closer than they had been before during the twins’ second summer in Gravity Falls. An accident with the secret project Ford had been working on had ended with the man in hospital, and for three months Stan didn’t leave his bedside. Soos had been charged with taking care of the twins, and the bond that he formed with the two in those hard couple of months had yet to be broken. Last Dipper had heard, he and Melody had two kids of their own to take care of now.

“Okay, good,” he said to Taryn, “we’ll be there in five minutes.”

True to his word, they arrived at the Mystery Shack in exactly five minutes. Taryn wasted no time in running at them, scooping her sister up in a hug so fierce Dipper was surprised not to hear any bones breaking. Both girls had tears streaking down their faces, mumbling incoherencies that were probably declarations of love and joy. Dipper heaved a sigh, moving away from their tangle and giving them some privacy to reunite. 

Briefly wondering where Bill had disappeared off to, Dipper sidled up next to Soos. “Hey man! How’ve you been?”

Soos smiled. “We’ve been good. Mel’s back home with my Abuelita now. You should have seen her face when she saw the kids! I think I forgot to tell her about them…” He frowned at the last part, but it was soon shaken off. “Anyway! She’s pretty cute!” He pointed at Taryn. “I’m not just saying this because Mabel ordered me to – you should ask her out.”

Dipper spluttered, “Wh-what?! I-I mean I guess so? Mabel told you to do that?” His voice was way too high pitched towards the end, and Dipper cursed his traitorous vocal chords.

“Oh, look! She’s coming over here! Good luck dude!” Soos clapped Dipper on the shoulder, and made haste to re-enter the shack.

“W-wait! Soos!” 

“Hey,” Taryn said, a small smile gracing her lips as she strode closer to Dipper than he would have liked, invading his personal space and wrapping her arms around him. “Thank you so much,” she breathed against his neck, and he looked around for any form of escape. Seeing none, and feeling tears soaking through his shirt, he gave in and returned the hug, patting her back awkwardly. It was at this moment that Soos decided to peer at him through the blinds, a phone that Mabel was no doubt on the other end of pressed against his ear, and he flashed Dipper a thumbs up before heading further into the room, talking excitedly.

“It’s okay,” Dipper said to Taryn. “I was happy to help. Really.”

Her arms around his waist squeezed a little tighter, and Dipper felt two fingers dip into his back pocket. Eyes wide, he moved his hands to the girls shoulders, slowly pushing her away from him and, by association, his butt. 

They stared at each other, a little uncomfortably, for what felt like hours, until Taryn’s eyes slipped towards something over Dipper’s shoulder. Worry blossomed within the blue iris, “She’s pooped,” she said, and Dipper looked over his shoulder at Kirstie, who was curled up in a ball on the grass, fast asleep. “I think I’m gonna take her home. She could use some rest.”

Dipper nodded, “Of course, yeah. You do that. Yeah.”

Taryn smiled, raising an eyebrow, “I’ll see you around?”

Dipper smiled back, still nodding. “Yeah.”

 

Δ

 

Bill was once again dragged into the home world of Eliza Snide against his will. As his body slipped through the dimensional crack, he was instantly covered with a layer of frost, the icy blue coating him restricting his movement. “Well, someone’s not a happy bunny!” He called out, his flames flaring up to melt the ice in his near vicinity.

Before Bill could sense her presence Eliza was in front of him. “Of course I’m not happy! Why isn’t the Pines boy dead yet?! Do you have any idea how much magic went into that beast in the forest? And he’s lounging around like it had no effect on him! _I want him dead!”_ Crystals of ice had begun to grow around her, breaking off from her body as she grew in size, her anger swelling.

“Yeesh, calm down! I’m getting to it!” Bill answered, “Pi-” he cut himself off before he could utter the nickname, “The kid well be dead the moment he is no longer useful to us. _Trust me_.”

Eliza seemed pleased with this answer, as she flicked her wrist and allowed Bill to return to his own dimension. He did so instantly. When he was back in the mindscape he heaved a sigh. He _had_ to figure out how to be at full power in other demon’s homescapes. It was becoming annoying.

Figuring it was probably safe to think freely now that he was back in the mindscape, he frowned. _How am I going to fake Pine Tree’s death?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> figured i should probably update this


End file.
